Why You Need to Teach Syllable Types: Phonics Rules for Teachers Episode 4

In episode 3 of Phonics Rules for Teachers (and How the Heck to Teach 'Em), learn what exactly syllables are and why you need to teach the 6 syllable types in your classroom.

A classroom teacher with 10 years of experience, Martha Moore hosts the Phonics Rules for Teachers Podcast. Drawing from her personal journey, she shares insights on transitioning from traditional teaching methods to a phonics-centered approach and the impact it has on students' reading and writing.

Each week , Martha shares a simple phonics rule, strategy, or background information and how you can teach it in your classroom.

For resources to go along with this series, visit the Phonics Rules for Teachers landing page: https://www.myprimaryparadise.com/prft/

Transcript

What is a syllable and why do you need to be teaching it in your music classroom? Welcome back to Episode Four of Phonics Rules for Teachers and How the Heck to Teach Them. Today, we're going to be tackling the basics of what is a syllable and why is it important for you to teach syllables in your classroom.

Syllables are one of the key building blocks of the English language. There's a whole lot more to syllables than just clapping how many syllables we hear in a specific word. Understanding the six syllable types can help students become much stronger readers and writers. It also helps the English language make a whole lot more sense.

Today, we're going to be talking about what syllables are and why it's important that you teach syllables in your classroom. In addition, over the next two videos, I will also be delving into specifics about each syllable type and then finally how the heck to teach them.

Before we dive into what exactly is a syllable, if you've missed my previous videos talking about letter names versus letter sounds, consonants versus vowels, that information would be really helpful to have for what we're going to talk about today. If you haven't watched that yet, I definitely recommend taking a look.

Let's jump right in with what is a syllable. I'm going to share my favorite definition of a syllable with you from "Uncovering the Logic of English". This is by far my favorite definition for an adult, and then I'm going to share with you how I like to explain this to a student, and I'm going to read it straight from the source:

"A syllable is an uninterrupted segment of sound, which is formed by the opening and closing of the mouth to form vowels. When we count the number of syllables, we are also counting the number of vowel sounds."

If you remember from my last video, we talked about how vowel sounds are produced when we open our mouth wide and there's nothing blocking our mouth. Consonants are sounds that are produced when the mouth is being blocked in some way by the lips, the teeth, or the tongue. So essentially, syllables are produced as we open and close our mouths to produce vowel sounds. Cool, right?

However, this definition might be a bit too complex for students. I like to just tell my students that a syllable is a beat in a word. English is a language with rhythm, and syllables help us to form that rhythm when we're speaking. I do explain that each syllable has one vowel sound – remember, not one vowel letter, but one vowel sound – and every word in English is made up of at least one syllable, meaning every word in English has at least one vowel sound.

Let's look at two examples. First, we can take the word "pot". "Pot" is a one-syllable word and it has one vowel sound, "a", that is represented by the letter "O". Let's look at a slightly more complex word, "train". "Train" is also a one-syllable word and we also have only one vowel sound, "a". However, we have two letters representing that one vowel sound.

The easiest way to understand what a syllable is, is to look at it this way: a syllable is a part of a word that has one vowel sound in it. And there can be words with one syllable, two syllables, three syllables, and more.

Now, the next question is: how can we determine how many syllables are in a word orally? When I was in school, I was taught to clap how many syllables were in a word, and then that was the last thing I heard about syllables. While we do want to go further than that, understanding how to figure out how many syllables are in a word is a great first step to understanding syllables overall. Because if you can't figure out how many syllables in a word, you can't tell me what kind of syllable you are looking at.

Here are four simple ways to determine orally how many syllables we hear in a word:

1. Clap it – you are probably familiar with this method as I think it's the most common. So, you just say the word and every time you hear a syllable or beat in the word, you clap. Like "banana" – three syllables.
2. Chin drops – Since the syllable is produced when we open and close our mouths, another great option to figure out how many syllables we hear in a word is to count the times our chin drops. So, if you place your hand underneath your chin and say a word like "banana", you will count how many times your chin has dropped, which was three, and that lets you know how many syllables are in that word. I do find that when students use this method, they need to exaggerate when they say the word a little bit.
3. Tap it out – This is one of my favorite methods because it automatically puts the number of syllables on the student's fingers. Instead of clapping as we're saying a word, I have them tap their chin to count how many syllables and put one finger up for each syllable. So, for example, we have "banana" – three syllables. Like I said, I like this way the best because they don't have to actually count the number as they're doing the thing, they automatically have the number.
4. Hum it – When we are humming words, we are actually humming the vowels, which means when we are humming words, we are actually humming the syllables because each syllable has one vowel sound. So, you can have your students close their mouth and hum the word to figure out how many syllables are in a word. For example, when I hum "banana", I can hear that there are three syllables in the word "banana".

Now that you understand what a syllable is and how we can figure out how many syllables are in a word, let's talk about why it is so important for our students to learn about syllables and syllable types. The bottom line is that if our students understand the six different syllable types, it will make decoding, reading, and encoding writing so much easier, and it will help them understand the logic and the rules of the English language. It will make it so much easier when they come across a word that they don't know or an uncommon word to figure out how to read and to pronounce that word. It will also make it easier for them to spell words with spelling patterns that they have already learned. Even if they haven't learned the word already, they will also be able to have a better sense of whether or not the spelling of a certain word that they wrote makes sense.

You see, once students understand all of the different syllable types, they will be able to decode a huge percent of the English language effectively. While, of course, understanding syllable types is not the only skill that students need, it is a really big piece of the puzzle. Understanding the difference between words like "taping" and "tapping", "cuter" and "cutter", "hopping" and "hoping" all comes down to syllable types. While you might already know the pronunciation of those words just because you figured it out, we don't want our students to just figure it out. 

We want to teach them in a systematic way so it makes sense. They can explain it, and they can understand fully why those words are pronounced with a different vowel sound than those words.

Honestly, teaching our students about the six syllable types in a systemic way is a gift that keeps on giving. And I can't wait to dive into the six syllable types with you next time. That's all I have for you today.

Don't forget to subscribe so that way you don't miss our next video on the six syllable types and future videos of Phonics Rules for Teachers and How the Heck to Teach Them. [Music]